


Happy Birthday

by LiinHaglund



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Adoption, Birthday, Birthday Cake, Explicit Language, Gen, Parenthood, Pre-Kapitel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-03-25 20:38:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3824326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiinHaglund/pseuds/LiinHaglund
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagi gets to celebrate a birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday

It was a slight relief to have Farfarello and Schuldig out of the house while he attempted to play Martha Stewart. They would be busy working until dinnertime, then they would come back. It left Brad with a little less than twelve hours.

Brad took the ingredients he would need out. He was no chef, but he could mix powder with water and shove it into the oven. It was all explained on the package. Whipping cream was about as difficult as loading a gun. He worked without really paying attention.

The new member of his team was a scrawny Asian kid he had picked up in Tokyo. He was too broken for even Rosenkreuz to bother with him – they just registered him and sent him back to Schwarz.

"You need a kinetic," they had said. What they meant was: "you have two other screw ups, what's one more?"

Brad wasn't sure if he should he happy or angry, but he was always handed the fuck ups nobody else bothered with. Farfarello had been deemed to much of a lose cannon. Schuldig – as high hopes as they had originally had for the boy – was stamped as a trouble maker who would never obey.

It was how Eszett treated them. Schuldig needed a firm hand and someone who would always come save him, someone who cared. Farfarello needed to be treated like a human being rather than a thing.

Brad wasn't sure why he bothered. He shouldn't. He hadn't, not at first. His first team assignment had been with Team Eleven, they had known him as ruthless and trigger happy. He had been sent off with good recommendations by the team leader, and a suggestion that he be in charge of his own team since he topped from the bottom too much.

He couldn't care less about Eleven.

It was probably Schuldig's fault. Most things were. Schuldig who had been dumped on him, half-starved and more than a little roughed up, with strict orders to shoot the boy should he be more trouble than he was worth.

Schuldig who didn't react to threats at all. Schuldig who had cried himself to sleep at night and shone like the sun at the slightest compliment.

It was always Schuldig's fault.

Making a cake for the new boy was something he knew for a fact violated everything he had been taught. You weren't supposed to treat your team like people, they were weapons. Things for the team leader to use and replace.

His artistic talent was limited to forging reports and filing elaborate expense reports. The cake was looking like a cake, though, and he was good enough at Japanese to know the kanji made from icing was correct.

He checked the clock and cleaned up a little before he took out plates and cutlery. He had known when Nagi would show up, but it was different seeing the vision and seeing it in the clarity of real life.

"Happy Birthday," he said quietly to the stunned child.

The boy sat on the barstool and looked at the cake on the counter island. Brad put the plates down and lit the candles.

"Make a wish."

If he was ever asked, he would say he had known all along the boy would end up on Schwarz. That was his story, and he was sticking to it.

Nagi blew out the candles, still looking stunned.

And the adoption was perhaps a formality to keep the child from running away, but Nagi wouldn't see it that way. Brad smiled when Nagi met his eyes. Nagi didn't need a team leader, wouldn't have listened to one.

"Want your present now?"

Maybe he was a manipulative asshole. Maybe he should stop giving these people hope. Maybe he made it all worse. Maybe seeing Nagi look at him like he was a guardian angel was a power trip.

Maybe this was the only family he would ever have.

Maybe Eszett needed to back the fuck off.  


End file.
